Page 98 of Just a Heartbeat Away

“You should try it,” Seb said.

“Matty, what spices do you like?” Via asked.

“I don’t know. Salt. And cheese.”

Seb’s cheeks flamed. “God. I swear we don’t eat like cavemen here. He also likes oregano. The green stuff in pasta sauce,” he reminded his son. He snapped his fingers. “Oh! And rosemary. You like rosemary potatoes.”

“Well, rosemary would taste really good on this.” Via turned to the spice cabinet and hunted some down. She served herself some of the hash and then sprinkled some rosemary over top of her portion. She gave it a little flourish, like a witch over top of a brew.

Matty watched her, not entirely convinced. But when Seb scooped a little of the hash on his plate, Matty did exactly the same thing as Via and sprinkled rosemary on.

“Sweet baby Jesus,” Seb groaned when he tasted the pancakes. “What did you add to these?”

She just winked at him. “They taste even better with the bananas and sugar.”

They sure did.

They ate slowly, chatting and laughing. Matty carefully picked around the broccoli in the hash, but he ate everything else from it.

Sometime during breakfast, a mid-November gray drizzle had started, and Matty used the development to leverage himself into a movie. Turned out, he wanted to watch a movie that Via had wanted to see, too. Seb had already seen it twice, thanks to Matty’s cajoling. It was some dumb sports movie. But he didn’t complain. Because Matty and Crabby lay in a pile on the floor, happy and full. And Seb and Via sat on the couch.

First she sat squarely on one cushion, him on the other. It wasn’t long, though, before he reached out for her hand, lacing their fingers and giving her a slight tug so that she was leaning against him. He tucked her into his side and was delighted when she curled into him, her knees pressing into his thigh.

By the end of the movie, Seb had an arm thrown around her shoulders and was driving them both insane by tracing pictures over the slice of skin at her hip where her sweater had ridden up.

“Okay,” Seb said when the credits rolled. Good God, his voice sounded like he’d run it through a cheese grater. “Time for day clothes. It’s not raining anymore. We’re gonna hit the playground.”

Matty rolled away from the TV and spotted their position for the first time. His blunt face pulled into a question mark. “Why are you sitting like that?”

“All snuggled up?” Seb asked, remembering that he’d resolved not to hide things from his son. He didn’t want to confuse Matty.

“Yeah.”

“Because it feels good, and we both wanted to.” That was the best he could come up with.

“Warm and sweet on a rainy day,” Via added. “Wanna come see?”

She held out one arm to Matty, and to Seb’s surprise, he automatically rose right up and skirted around the coffee table to come over to her. He crawled up on the couch and snuggled into her side, tossing his legs over her lap and wiggling his toes at his dad. “Yeah. I guess it’s nice.”

Seb tweaked one of Matty’s toes and made him giggle.

“Do I still smell like sweaty muffins?” Via asked with a smile on her face.

“Nah. Just regular muffins,” Matty said as he took a hearty sniff. “And the breakfast you cooked.” He slid away from the grown-ups. “I’m gonna get dressed.”

Matty ran full speed into the kitchen first, Crabby nipping at his heels. Seb knew exactly what he was doing. Checking the kitchen thermometer.

“It’s thirty-eight degrees, Dad!”

“All right,” Seb called back. “So that means pants and a long sleeve and good socks!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Matty muttered and Seb watched him plod down the hall toward his bedroom to change.

“He hates winter clothes. Actually, he hates anything that’ll keep him warm. The kid would live in the freezer if he could.”

Via smiled, looking down the hallway where Matty had just disappeared. She squeaked when Sebastian looped her waist and tugged her to him, chest-to-chest. He was slouching back against the couch, and they were somewhere between sitting up and lying down.

“We’ve got about five minutes until he’s back out here,” Seb whispered into the hollow below her jaw. Via made a noise, something that reminded Seb of a nervous kitten.

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